Lisa: The Oblivion Going through my Seth: The Masquerade post, I couldn't help thinking of another character that it would be interesting to do a World of Darkness entry for. Given that Lisa Moore's ghost still occasionally appears in the depressing Funky Winkerbean series, having her be a Wraith: The Oblivion character could work. Though there's be one twist that a person on the Comics Curmudgeon played around with that would be added...

Bio: She should've gone to Heaven, but something just didn't seem right. Though she couldn't quite make out what Les and the doctor at the hospital were bickering about a few days ago, but that just didn't sound like her husband at all. Maybe it was that lingering doubt that kept her from her eternal reward and brought the attention of her mentor (the masked man).

At first, she was confused on why she was brought here, but with every other thing in her life, Lisa calmly made it through. Thankfully, the masked man took her under his wing and introduced her into the Heretics. Since she enjoyed caring and watching over people, The Host faction's belief in being guardian angels instantly appealed to her.

Current Status: For the last 15 years, Lisa has been successful in keeping an eye on her family. Working for the Heretics can be very time-consuming, especially since she's so willing to help her fellow Wraiths. A number of the Heretics do enjoy her company, though there have been rough spots as of late due to Les' growing arrogance and attempts to whore out her legacy. Lisa is just so blinded by her love for her husband that these flaws go over her head and nothing short of hard evidence will convince her.

The Truth: Fearing that having a surviving wife would mean less recognition with his efforts for the cancer community, Les began poisoning his wife to make her sick again. To make sure no one found out, he bribed a doctor to meddle with the reports so it looked like her cancer reemerged. The argument came from the doctor wanting more money.

Mr. Clint City 2012 Since the official fan magazine for Urban Rvals isn't out yet (from what I know), I wanted to post up the links for the Mr. Clint City pageant. You see, I run the unoffical pageant for the male characters that were released over the course of about 13 months. Just vote for one guy per clan (I'll give you to the links to which guy is which). For you noobs to this series see if you can get some of the references. Post what you think it could be

Bad Company Anyone who follows me on the Comic Casserole knows about my reviews of Brooke McEldowney's stuff and theirs of the webcomic, Candi. And given the recent Linda-bashing via Starline's author avatar, Bianca, it makes me realize that the cast of this comic could easily compete with the ones in 9CWL in sociopathic attitudes, hypocrisy and being annoyingly sexually obsessed. So I decided to compare and contrast the two parties...

Where You Stand9CWL: With the exception of Seth, you pretty much know where you stand with the cast, they either like you or they don't. As long as you're a high-brow and act nice, there's a good chance they'll at least accept you. But when you slight them, you will know their wrath (usually through catty barbs) though you could win them over if you prove to be a talented enough artist/intellectual. Thankfully, Amos and Elliot are a lot more accepting and forgiving of others.Candi: While the expectations for acceptance are not as high, the cast isn't afraid to use or belittle their own friends when they feel like it. (The richer ones will spend their money if they like you.) If you slight them or Candi, it's a matter of time before they try to crush you and not feel all that bad about it. Other wise, you can have some fun times.Point Goes To: 9CWL. I'd rather put up with snobs than back-stabbers.

Sex, Sex and Relationships9CWL: While the men are more mild-mannered about their conquests, the females are constantly horny and love to go into full detail of their exploits. (Even if you don't want to hear about it, tough luck.) Otherwise, the couples in romantic relationships will stay true to each other.Candi: The women are also proud of their exploit (but will not go into massive detail), but will ridicule you if you aren't at their level. Virgins, on the other hand, are spared and if you want, they'll help you get laid. Do not expect monogamy if you're in a romantic relationship because the other person will cheat or at least have an emotional affair with someone else. Be aware for if someone has plans, they will not care if a relationship gets broken in the process.Point Goes To: 9CWL. At least I have less of a reason to worry about getting a VD from a cheating lover.

Views on Women9CWL: The women are usually either bitter old biddies or sex-crazed nymphos who have little life outside their jobs and man (who they will have sex with at any opportunity). They just love to swoon over their man and will spread her legs constantly.Candi: The females are free to make their own sexual choices and have social lives.Point Goes To: Candi

Views on Men9CWL: Straight men will eventually become weak-willed mush-heads to any nympho that is interested in them. (Otherwise, they're rather nice.) The gay ones tend to be major stereotypes.Candi: The men usually are either arrogant asses, think with their dicks, self-absorbed or a mix. Will usually put poon over responsibilities, feelings and their own morals.Point Goes To: 9CWL

Jibber-Jabber9CWL: The characters have an outdated (use terms from the 50's and before), purple-prosed, over-intellectualized way of talking where huge words are used. Think of a drunken Frasier Crane trying to be smart.Candi: The characters talk like normal people.Point Goes To: Candi

Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful After all the buzz about Samantha Brick's article about how she is persecuted by other women (while men adore her) because she's so beautiful that it's a bit of a curse. Since it reminds me a lot of what someone's Mary-Sue character would say (especially in the urban fantasy genre), I decided to check it out. Despite her having a bit too much of a forehead, she's attractive though I wouldn't say beautiful. Not to mention she comes off as arrogant, self-absorbed and probably not an enjoyable person to be around.

As a I read a few more of her articles, I began to see the bigger picture. Growing up as an overweight ugly duckling who only got positive attention from her peers when she became prettier as a teen, I can see where that would convince someone that looks are what matter in life. We've all had our vain moments and I'm very proud of my youthful appearance. And the persona I use for my fanficmocks is a vainer, hornier and more messed-up version of myself. But with Ms. Brick, it's the only thing she focuses on in the articles I read.

Given that she used her looks to get ahead in the media business would only cement this idea. Since her career failed after a while (if I remember correctly) and her first husband was a selfish man-child, that would be a huge blow to her self-esteem. Now throw in a new husband who despite the fact he's no Adonis, is obsessed with her looks that not only will leave her if she gains a little weight (bloating from periods is no excuse), but is demanding enough with he chooses what she wears. So when I looked back at the first article, I wonder if this arrogance is a defense mechanism for having such a demanding life and not being able to see things outside herself.

I also looked at the pics in her Big is Beautiful article and I think the bigger women in the pictures are very pretty.

Writing: Misogyny and Misandy I like to hang out at NoneAreAngels where we've had some interesting talks about misogyny and misandry. Which got me thinking about both subjects in the media and how they might unintentionally be in the same story. Here's what I mean...

The Nice Guy: Being the misadventures of a poor widdle me "Nice Guy", every woman is portrayed as either an evil bitch, an airhead who only wants jerks or screwed-up. Heck, even the art can't help but to draw them as empty-headed with plastered smiles. But when you look at how the men that aren't the main character are leering jerks and sexist pigs. Maybe arguably it is both of these things when the creators are more focused at getting back at women.

Naughty Bits: Granted I've only read two issues. While there were some fun parts with the funny faces Midge makes and that the comic is trying make a point with what's going on with the world, there was something that rubbed me wrong way when I read it as a teen. In the background, there were newspapers and magazines about men hurting/killing women, the men are sleezeballs and Midge's disgust over how gender-specific toys enforce violence in boys and submission in women.

On the other hand, all of Midge's female co-workers (all of them are straight) are portrayed as gullible ninnies who defend Midge's creepy ex for theft, fooling themselves that he had good intentions and one woman in a grocery shop is a psycho. Only the lesbian couple are the sane and rational ones. It also makes me wonder about the author's feelings on both genders.

1000 Ways to Die (Comic Strip Edition) I'm a fan of the show 1000 Ways to Die and since one of the show's main themes is karmatic justice it got me thinking of a few characters and creators could meet their fitting demise. And feel free to share your own ideas.

Les Moore: In his latest attempt to cash off on his wife's death, Les decides claims that he will use the proceeds of the latest Lisa's Legacy Run to create a large statue of her. That way no one will ever forget the fight against cancer (or so he claims). Since Mopey Pete is the only artist available that can actually tolerate Les' demands until the unveiling. Making the mistake of doing Lisa before her cancer, Les throws a tantrum in front of everyone for Pete's "unrealistic" portrayal of people with cancer and climbs up with a chisel to fix it himself. While attempting to chip away the statue's hair, he falls off and gets impaled by his own tools.

Dustin: Given a custodial job, the lady training him gives some advice on the new industrial vacuum and tells him to use to hose to clean under the desks. This is where our genius realizes that if the hose can suck paperclips, what else can it suck? Let's just say it involves his pants around his ankles and death by blood loss.

Ed Crankshaft: After way too many ruined BBQs, the family has had enough and have put him under strict watch to not ruin this year's 4th of July party. Slighted, Crankshaft manages to sneak out and make his own party at the local park with special firecrackers that will shoot out when he cooks. But this time, his luck runs out when the grill explodes and he gets killed by a rain of shrapnel.

Rose: While watching a marathon of Fin Tutola-centered episodes of Law & Order: SVU,the family's widescreen TV starts to act up. Ignoring her son's warnings, she tries to pull it out to fix it only to have it fall on and electrocute her.

SSX: Randomocity Sorry if this is random; it's being typed as a stream of consciousness thing.

There's a funny thing about SSX Tricky was that it is one of the few sports games I've really enjoyed and made me disillusioned in Japanese RPGs. Being a JRPG since Dragon Warrior I, the genre really hit hard in the late 90's and early 2000's. Every character was from the same nine annoying, unlikable archetypes and cliche after cliche that it felt like less effort was being put in. What really cemented my disillusion was when I realized that when a snowboarding game has more likable, interesting, original and deeper characters, the JRPG industry is in trouble. But that's another rant for another day.

One thing that really drew me to SSX Tricky was the great characters and how they made the game more fun with their antics. The game play is also great and its one I can happily come back to. It was kinda goofy with out getting stupid, didn't take itself too seriously and even some of the levels that fit that vibe (like the pinball machine-like Tokyo stage.)

-The interesting thing was that I happened to like some of the less popular characters like Seeiah and Luther while not liking Elise (who was a favorite). Maybe it's the voice actress (Lucy Liu), but she kinda comes off as a bitch at time.

The new SSX game does have some good stuff like the additional items (ice axes and flight suits), improved graphics and a good soundtrack. And I can understand them wanting to take a more serious route, but they took out the soul by wittling the character's personalities (especially Psymon) while new ones like Alexis had no real personality or charm. It was also too bad they took out the alliances and rivalries, a lot of the voice acting and craziness to boot. Overall, this review sums up a lot of what I feel.

Shopping Trip It's funny how sometimes taking the wrong turn during a shopping trip with a friend can lead to some nice things. It's how we found a quaint little dinner where we automatically befriended the regulars and a very nice chocolate shop. As for some of the goodies I got..

-Alice In Chains' "Jar of Flies" album. These guys are one of my all-time favorite bands with "No Excuses" being my favorite song.

-Some World of Darkness gaming books: Demon Hunter X, Liege, Lord and Lackey; and Clanbook: Baali. I collect gaming books as a hobby and have been trying to complete my World of Darkness collection with the exception of the Hunter: The Reckoning and Changling (which I felt never really fit in with the rest of the World of Darkness series) lines.

Manboob Logic I've gotten addicted to the Manboobz website (that snarks on the anti-women posts and articles of MRAs). And there's a weird kind of logic that constantly contradicts itself. At least with the extremist rad-fems, theirs is more consistent in the form having no exceptions on how they view men.

-Claim how mean and picky American women are while these guys call them "ugly", whores and manipulative skanks who can do no right compared to the foreign women they put on a pedestal. While these good, foreign women are expected to be nice, dutiful and respectful to them. Though there are some that like to refer to non-American Asian women as "little brown fucking machines". (Scroll down for that one)

-Complain about women spending too much on beauty products and plastic surgery when they're the ones that think any woman over 30 (or in some cases 25) are gross and used-up, get upset when a woman is overweight or dresses poorly (but hate it when they wear provocative stuff) and genuinely refer to the vagina as repulsive. They'll counter by saying how these women are only doing these big beauty treatments for their own egos, not for getting men.

-Think women are too stupid and emotional to do anything right, but then have conspiracy theories about how women are manipulating and subduing men with their evil schemes.

New Pics I haven't posted up any new art so I decided to make up for lost time. There are two characters from the Urban Rivals series, Gordon and Felicia, who I think would make a cute couple. Since a sister-in-fandom did her own engagement pic of some other characters, I had the urge to draw my own. Though she despises this pairing due to her pairing Felicia with someone else.

How to Be an Edgy Writer In the competitive world of writing, I've noticed a popular tactic is to go the edgy route. So why not give it a try.

Dialogue: By stuffing enough purple prose and fancy $5 words, you can give the illusion of being smart and poetic without being either. That way you can accuse people who can't understand what the characters are saying as uncultured morons.

Or you could go the other way and have a good chunk of the cast drop f-bombs and enough crude language to make a 70's blue comedian blush (bonus points if the character is too young to drive). Thus you can claim you're being edgy and look cool to young male teens.

Characters: Make them as unpleasant as possible. Whether they are total cads who can't think beyond their own petty hedonism, violent jerks, self-righteous elitists, thoughtless idiots, mopey twits or just plain jerks (this goes double for antagonists). This way you can be gritty and claim how you're showing the true face of humanity, realistic or claim that it's diverse characterization.

If there are any truly nice characters, they must be treated like crap and constantly humiliated (or at least killed-off). Or in the case you are writing for an established series and doing a big event, feel free to destroy a few of them. You can use the "keeping it real" excuse or how it's a multilayer study of this character's descent. And if the abuse is being done in a humorous way, claimed that the naysayers have no sense of humor and should "go back to the old folks home."

Story: Violence and lots of it. If your content can't put an episode of Itchy & Scratchy to shame, you're not trying hard enough. No one, not even young children and pregnant women should be safe from your work so vaporize a few for good measure. As for sexual assault (attempted counts), throw as much of that in as possible, but don't worry about having to deal with the consequences, it's not like you're Norman Lear or anything. If you're doing an erotic/adult comic, you can have the females secretly turned on..

Sure you can have some story and message behind it all (nothing is sacred), but make sure the shocks overpowers it or go the Terry Goodkind/South Park route and make the opposite side so horrid/stupid that your mouthpieces look good by comparison (bonus points if you can get into a big lecture). This way you and your fans can yell at any naysayers for "not getting it", being oversensitive/PC-Nazis, "hating goodness" or being too stupid to understand. Then ridicule them for actually liking stuff that is *gasp* positive and could get away with a PG rating.

So there you have it; all the tools you need to be successful in the field of writing (especially comic books) and make sure to give me a 40% finders' fee.

Radfems and Misogynists While my fellow posters at Project A.F.T.E.R. and I were enjoying mocking some radfem (radical feminist) sites, I decided to check out the other half, MRAs (men's rights activists). While they claim to be that, they're more of a rabid anti-women group that hate women just as much as their female counterparts hate men. Still there's some interesting differences...

Opposite GenderRadfems: Men are aggressive, cruel and power-hungry beasts who want to hurt women and are the cause of the world's suffering. If women were in charge (preferably without men), nothing bad would happen. Stay away from them at all costs unless you absolutely have to.MRA: Women (especially western ones) are vindictive, disgusting, crude, useless sluts that once they got rights, ruined society. Are ugly and useless once they hit 30, thus going for ones under 25 (even young teens) is preferable. Occasional exceptions are foreign women (preferably Asians) and sexbots. They find it funny to talk about wanting to hurt women or if they get injured/breast cancer.

Sex Radfems: Vaginal intercourse is dangerous because women can get pregnant and diseases, plus it hurts. Men only want to dominate (even if they say otherwise) women and hurt them. The lesbian ones believe that women are brainwashed into thinking heterosexuality and vaginal sex are normal when they are not.MRA: Women use sex to control, scam and manipulate men. Vaginas are gross and stinky much like a lot of women in bed so love them and leave them if you absolutely must do one. Since the thought of a white woman having sexual contact with a black man is icky to them, they have a runaway imagination with women being whores for black cock.

ChildrenRadfems: Pregnancy is horrid because it puts a woman's health at risk (possibly killing them), disfigures them (extra weight and stretch marks) and keeps women subservient. Allowing a man around a child is endangering them because the man will hurt/molest them.MRA: Women are too lazy, stupid and incompetent to properly raise children so do it yourself or get another man to do it. Women love to use pregnancy as a weapon to exploit men.

RapeRadfems: Men want nothing more than to rape women if they had the chance.MRA: Rape accusations are overblown and always false to hurt men.

GaysRadfems: No real problem with the males, but many see lesbianism as natural and more preferable.MRA: Surprisingly more tolerant of gay males than one would assume. Believe it happens due to evil, disgusting women being such a turn-off that they have no choice but to go to other men (many MRAs are straight). Though some believe that women are behind an agenda to turn all men into the swishy kind, thus the more manly ones and straight men should ban together against women. Lesbians all fit into the bull dyke stereotype.

I find when it comes to female anit-feminists, they tend to fall into two classes: blue-collar and white-collar. Your blue-collar ones like Michelle Duggar, they usually practice what they preach in being in their traditional roles as "helpmates" and poping-out kids that they will homeschool and such. If they do preach a traditional women's role message, it's kept to websites, books that will be sold in religious sites and stores or in magazine articles. Their husbands or fathers will handle the bigger stuff.

Now your white-collar anti-feminist are your Michelle Bachmans, Phillis Schlaflys and Lynn Johnstons. They're the kind that love to hail traditional womanhood and submission to one's husband (whoever is the head male in their group) all while enjoying the lofty positions that they never would've gotten if they got the society they champion. Although Lynn Johnston is in a different class by demonizing working women (especally if they don't take "feminie" jobs like teacher or running family/child-friendly book stores) which she did during the first incarnation of For Better or For Worse with Therese. Because Therese was a career-minded woman who Johnston actively demonized in her work for not wanting to give up her job and be a stay-at-home-mom like her jerk husband, Anthony (don't get me started on him) wanted. Though thankfully that kinda backfired on Johnston with a handful of her fans.

Going back to the subject at hand, much like the fictional lady televangelist (A Handmaid's Tale) who's name I got the term from, these ladies are going to learn the hard way that they will lose everything if they got what they preached. Serena Joy lost her cushy job as a televangelist and singer, her private savings and earnings were taken away, her own major accomplishments in helping the fundamentalists gain power were downplayed (at best) and she was reduced to be a second-class citizen. Think about it, Michelle Bachman wouldn't even be allowed to hold a public office (since women are to be subserviant to men), Phillis Schlafly would lose ownership of her organization and her job as a lawyer, Ann Coulter and Dr. Laura would not be allowed to give their opinions on air (since women weren't supposed to have ideas and opinions back then unless it was to agree with their husbands/fathers) and all the headway Lynn Johnston made as a female comic strip writer, they wouldn't even let her get her foot in the door.

I know there are certain kinds of Serena Joys (like Phillis Schlafly) that claim that the traditional wife has a lot of power because they can suck-up to their husbands to get what they want or use sex as a barter, but if they got their traditional woman world, they wouldn't get the chance. Men from that kind of society don't like being manipulated like that or being told no by their wives with dire consequences.

That's the thing with Serena Joys, they believe that because they are the messangers and are helping the ones in charge, the rules will never apply to them. Shame they'll take every other woman down with them.

9-11 Tributes My associate, Regnad_Kcin, made an interesting point about 9-11 tribute comics. Although I have a different feeling. This is a great tragity that has become exploited to create hate, fear/paranoia, holier-than-thou-patriotism and control from those who want to appease their own political, ideological and/or religious ends. And with all the problems that have arrose since then from a more politically divided nation to going into massive debt to bad patriotic songs that sometimes it feels hard to divide the triubtes that are sincere from the ones that are just trying to jump the bandwagon.

The truth about evil Just looking at all the stuff that is going on with the crap that many big corporations, the Koch brothers, etc, what is the point of what they are doing? They're willing to risk lives, making enemies, environmental damage, economic catastrophe and their own possible self-destruction for what? Just a bunch of stupid paper/gold that they'll never really use for anything and just sits there.

Imagine the advances and beauty people like the Koch brothers could create by investing in jobs and helping businesses here, working together to create clean energy sources so they don't have to worry about running out of oil, holding city beautification projects or at least art contests or create news stations with the kind of trust that would make Walter Cronkite proud. At least they would receive love, admiration, awards, more money (people with cash can spend more), not have people hounding for their blood and be viewed with favor by history.

Even if they were just playing fair, paid their taxes and did nothing else, I (probably many other people) wouldn't mind. But this is just stupid and wasteful. Then again, it's just as Simoin Weil said, "No desert is so dreary, monotonous, and boring as evil."Sure it's arguably easier to do, but what are the results? The livelihood sucked out of everything (dreary), producing the same results with the same life draining tactics (monotonous) and producing nothing of value in return (boring.)

Seth: The Masquerade After seeing Seth's (9 Chickweed Lane) crappy attitude in the last arc, I couldn't help thinking if anyone in the comic strip universe deserves to be some Nosferatu's Cleopatra, it would be him. You see, I'm a major Vampire: The Masquerade fan so bear with me and enjoy the entry.

Prelude: During Seth's public tango with Fernanda, what he didn't know that he caught a second woman's interest: a Nosferatu named Betty. While even she could respect a person's talents, there was something about Seth that rubbed her the wrong way. So after some spying, Betty discovered that he was a vain, petty and selfish man who was convinced in his own false goodness. But Betty was in a good mood and decided to give him one more chance. The night after his passionate ballet recital with Fernanda, Betty used her powers to appear human and approached Seth while he waiting at a line in a fancy cafe. She complimented him with honeyed words of his great talent that inspired her to take up dance and asked him for some advice. Repulsed by her white-trash appearance and utter lack of knowledge of high-class dance, he berated her in front of the entire cafe. Which was reason enough to kidnap and embrace him the second was alone.

Current Status: At first, Seth found being a Nosferatu an annoying hindrance and foolishly believed he can either cure himself or find a way to rise above the rabble. That was until he discovered the Toreador. Seeing these beautiful, artistic and aristocratic vampires who dedicated their lives beauty and pleasure caused jealousy grow in Seth's heart. He believed that this was the clan he should've been embraced into and took it out on others, especially Toreador who's art didn't fit his high-class standards. Eventually one of his victims stood up to him and told him how he was nothing more than a lowly sewer-rat who has done nothing of value since his embrace.

That's where Seth got the idea that he would perform a one-man ballet for the vampires of the in a full-body disguise. He believes that after they are amazed by his masterful performance (which he is capable of), he will make a small speech and reveal himself. In his mind, once they see his "inner beauty" shine through, they'll have no choice but to accept and grant him a higher social setting. As much as Seth annoys them, his Nosferatu kin are helping him in his scheme just to see him fall.

Relationships: Seth left notes to Edda (his roommate) and the ballet company he works at that he had been accepted into another company, but will visit when he has a chance. Though he took a chunk of his stuff while Edda was out, he let her keep the rest as well as plenty of money to maintain the apartment's rent. As soon as he can get total control over "Mask of a Thousand Faces", he plans to revive contact with Edda and her family. Though one slip-up and his hideous appearance will cause them to reject him unless he can scare them into it.

Edda's uncle, Roger, who Seth pressured into admitting that he was gay and leave his wife and 11 kids (to prove that his gaydar was right) has met a tragic end in this version. Where he's alright in the comic, the WoD one realized that he was lying to himself about being gay and let Seth manipulate him for his own need to be right. (Seth as been trying to convince himself that Roger's suicide "wasn't his fault" in attempt alleviate his guilt.) As for Fernanda, she is pregnant, but isn't sure if Seth or her new dance partner is the father. (Which he is ignorant of.)